Speaker Biography
“Shakespeare through the Ages at OSU” Watch Video
The first woman to be tenured and promoted to full professor in the Oregon State University Theatre program, Charlotte Headrick was a member of the OSU Speech Communications faculty from 1982 to her retirement in 2016.
At Oregon State, Headrick was heavily involved with the campus' theater community, both as a classroom teacher and as a director of scores of productions. Her work as a director included experiences leading musicals, Greek drama, Shakespeare and modern productions; she performed as an actor as well. In 1994 she received OSU's highest teaching honor, the Elizabeth P. Ritchie Outstanding Professor for Undergraduate Teaching Award. In 2003 she received the Excellence Award from the College of Liberal Arts; she is also a past recipient of the college's C. Warren Hovland Award for outstanding service.
As a scholar, Headrick's primary research interests include the Irish theater and women playwrights. She has guest directed at many colleges and universities, has directed the American premieres of several Irish plays, and has written numerous papers about Irish women dramatists. A member of the American Conference for Irish Studies, Headrick was also the first woman to chair the Northwest Region for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. In 2014 she published an anthology titled Irish Women Dramatists: 1918-2001, co-edited with Eileen Kearney.
The transcribed video of an oral history interview conducted with Headrick is available online. So too is the finding aid for the Charlotte Headrick Papers (MSS Headrick) at the OSU Libraries Special Collections and Archives Research Center.